Tag Archives: gun violence

Hadiya Pendleton was a girl who had the world to look forward to. An honor student, she performed as a drum majorette during President Obama’s inauguration, only to be killed unintentionally by thugs involved with Chicago’s out of control drug gang violence. Her guardians did everything right and her future was bright, but cut short for being in the wrong place and the wrong time. And this is the problem with trying to do anything good in open drug markets. Open up a business and it gets robbed. Fix up a house and it gets burglarized. Raise kids to be successful and they get harassed, assaulted, and possibly killed. Our hearts go out to the families of this girl and all the children getting killed only due to living in drug crime areas. When you are deciding where to buy your house or live longterm, remember to also keep in mind any children you might be having in the future. Why let all the love and hard work and great parenting go to tragic waste because of a street thug’s itchy trigger.

As I listen to more argue for and against more gun control, something seems very obvious. There are two different problems needing two different solutions, but everyone is trying to address the situation with the same paintbrush. Gun violence in high crime, urban problems has been a problem since American cities were created. Solving this problem means addressing the causes of the high crime to begin with. There are many smart and hardworking people working on this issue and in many cities, like New York, the problem is being addressed. However, this is a totally different issue than controlling and preventing the actions of random nutcases who get their hands on guns and shoot up specific, crime-free locations, such as elementary schools, churches, malls, and movie theaters. The laziest of thinkers are trying to turn this into a race issue. All shootings are terrible. All deaths are sad and we should work hard to prevent them. But the gun control steps which make sense in the first situation, such as criminal background checks, would have little impact on the events of the second situation. None of the mass shooters of recent years had crimes in their background.

Meanwhile, people in rural communities who have exercised responsible gun ownership for multiple generations are rightly upset by the control solutions being floated out there. Let’s stop trying to find one solution to fix every component of gun violence. Only addressing the specific problems will bring the best answers.